I have been following with great interest the passage of the digital economy bill through the house of lords and have enjoyed watching the debates on BBC democracy live and the accompanying conversation on twitter(http://search.twitter.com/?q=debill). I have been impressed with the fight against some of the motions put forward by the government and I hope that this continues. The measures in the bill regarding disconnection, mandatory blocking of a free/open internet and abuse of photographers copyright are dreadful from a technical, legal and moral perspective. The rights of individuals are being trodden on by a government obsessed with control. I have been made aware that there is an amendment due to be tabled in the morning which will allow entire sites to be blocked if they are accused of infringing copyright(http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/lib-dems-seek-web-blocking ). In my view this gives the government of the day frankly Orwellian control over what we are allowed to see, use & do on the internet. In my view it is a bad amendment to a bad bill and should not be suggested to a government which has too much power already.

I hope you will consider this before the debate on Wednesday and I will be watching with interest.